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Welcome

Hello there. I am /u/TellAPhony and I decided to watch RWBY and write down my reactions. Like a journal, or a diary, or whatever. Rather than drum up some big announcement thread, I decided to just jump right in. I will be doing one episode every day for as long as it takes to get through the show!

My thoughts are recorded as I have them. The video is paused, screenshots are taken, thoughts are written, and the show continues. I hope you will enjoy it.

Also, if anyone has any idea how to get the screenshots to just appear, instead of appear as links, that’d be grand. Since I couldn’t make it work, I decided to just embed them as captioned links for now. Also any pointers on how to make it less wall-of-texty would be nice.

So, let’s just get into it.

Ruby Rose

I like this creation myth.

So, in summary, Man was born from dust into a world of monsters called “Grimm”, but they used their dust, which I assume to mean their inbuilt magical powers, to destroy these creatures and create civilization. However, If the narrator is to be believed, then bad jujumagumbo is on the horizon.

And this clockwork orange motherfucker has something to do with it.

Something else worth noting: all the minor characters are in black silhouette. That’ll make it easy to identify who’s important, then.

Who’s this other narrator, now? Wait, is this a conversation? The woman is the “bad narrator” and the man is the “good narrator”? That’s a neat idea, to have two narrators narrating different sides of the story in a conversation with eachother. Like some sort of chess match between the big bad and the big good. I hopw this trend continues.

“Things that require a smaller, more honest soul.”

I dunno about you, but I can spot a magical girl a mile away. This, my friends, is a magical girl. Magical girl animes arn’t my favorite thing ever, but they can be okay if done right. They always seem a little inherently sexist, but we’ll see how this goes.

Does she have a weapons magazine? That’s weird, a magical girl with a gun fetish, though it’s not unheard of.

Also, is it just me or is the animation a little…off. Actually, the overall quality seems a little low. Maybe better than a student project, but way less than a professional outfit. It’s a little offputting, but I don’t hate it. Not yet. Maybe I’ll get used to it.

Dust, I assume?

Very pretty. And it makes a weird sound I can only describe as “shimmery”. So is that the grand master plan, Bad Narrator, send Alex here to hold up dust shops? You’re an inspiration to every punk with a gun and a ski mask. Little do they know there’s a *magical girl * in that shop. I get the feeling this will only go badly for them. Let’s watch.

Wait, not there for the money? So this really is the grand master plan? Pretty low-stakes if you ask me. Maybe it’ll unfold.

“Crystals. Burn. Uncut.” I notice that the adorable old man grabs the red one. These shows us a few things. Dust comes in whatever form is in those wall tubs, but it also comes in crystal form. Cut crystals and uncut crystals. And crystals of various types. I suppose the different colors already gave that away but it’s nice to have confirmation.

Uh oh

I wouldn’t try it mate. This can only go bad for you. If only you had my magical girl spotting skills.

Oh my god the music. “They see you as small and helpless, they see you as just a child.” I’m laughing my ass off over here. This man is so dead.

“A warrior will soon run wild.

And here we have her: our magical girl. Isn’t she a little cutie patootie. Also, that’s a rather strange eye color, wouldn’t you say? Gray eyes. And the hair reminds me of cherry coke, black fading to red. With the read cloak-and-hood I’m getting a strong Little Red Riding Hood vibe. So would that make the creatures the big bad wolf then? Strong theming so far.

“Are you robbing me? Ohhhh…”

Cute voice. I can just pick out the older woman trying to sound like a younger woman in there. But, kudos on them for not going too high-pitched with it. Also, this dude is so dead. She does not feel threatened by the sword at all. This tells us that not only is she a magical girl, she knows she is and is comfortable with her powers. It’ll be interesting to see her in action. Considering her coloration and the name-drop earlier of “burn dust” I’m gonna go out on a limb and say fire powers. She’s gonna burn this guy to a crisp. Burn, baby, burn.

Hii-ya!

Oh man, that’s funny. She didn’t burn him yet, but she kicked the absolute tar out of him. My favorite bit is that Alex doesn’t give a shit at all. Nice

I wouldn’t try it, mate.

Told ya

Wait what? Is that an mechanical unfolding scythe twice her size?

This is a little weird. That thing might weigh more than she does. I’m gonna withhold judgement just for a bit, but that’s a little out there. Well, magical girl, right? Turns out her powers aren’t fire based (not yet anyway) and has more to do with super-strength. Fair enough.

THE MUSIC WAS DIAGETIC. Nice. Very nice.

Holy hell. Girl can fight. Super strength it is, then. Now it seems like Alex wants to get involved.

Hey!

Nothing to analyse here. I just thought it was a cute pose. Also, apparently this slipped by me, but the scythe is also a gun? This explains the gun magazine. Further, rewatching the scene I noticed she uses the recoil to move around. Interesting.

Cool airship

Two things to note here. Number 1, Alex has enough resources to apparently summon an airship. Yet he’s knocking over dust shops? This seems incongruous. Either we have some seriously bad storytelling, or there’s something else going on. Number 2, our magical girl is wearing enough red petticoats to block an anime upskirt shot. It would have been so easy to go for the fanservice, but they resisted. Nice.

Hello, Nurse!

Seems we have another magical girl. Or rather, magical woman. Pantyhose and a tight skirt, blonde hair in a severe bun, stylized cape. Oh yeah, she totally seems my type. Apparently, her magical girl power is to steal from Full Metal Alchemist. And is that a riding crop?

Green eyes. Yummy.

Magic missile!

“We got a huntress!

Okay, so magical girls are called huntresses. Probably because they hunt monsters. Good to know. Also, who is the hottie in the red dress, and who the hell pilots an airship in a red dress?

Magical girls can turn evil.

This is good to know. Apparently it’s this red woman who has fire powers, not our cute little red hero. Missed it by that much. Also, her power is apparently tied to her dress somehow? Those symbols are definately glowing.

That fight was so cool.

“Can I have your autograph?”

Dawwww. So our little red has a bit of hero worship. Interesting.

Apparently not

bahaha. No autograph for you.

Ohhh, so the older woman is a bit of a strict ballbuster. Meow.

“They stated it!”

“With a pat on the back, and a slap on the wrist!”

I wanna know what love is….. Please be a main character. Please please please.

Inb4 this guy’s name is professor something

Holy shit, it’s the dude narrator! I wonder if the woman in red is the bad narrator. Also, we have a name for our little huntress. Ruby Rose. I suppose the title made it obvious enough in hindsight.

Silver eyees.

They’re silver eyes. And they’re important somehow. Also, professor narrator is a bit a creep, no?

Uncle Crow, eh? And apparently professor whosit knows this Uncle Crow. “I was complete garbage before he took me under his wing” Was that a pun?

Hi-yaaaaa!

I think I just died of cuteness.

So the school is designed a train warriors. Huntresses. Call it confirmed.

According to Ruby’s stream of thought, Huntresses are trained in a very collegiate way. Some years at Huntress High School, then some years at Huntress College. So Signal must be Huntress High School then. So, what we have here is a magical girl high school anime. Way to think outside of the box.

All we need now is a love interest.

PROFESSOR OZPIN, CALLED IT. Headmaster of Beacon. Beacon being Huntress College. While he also moonlights as the Good Narrator.

Oh, okay, she gets to skip her last two years at Huntress High School. So what we actually have is a college magical girl anime. Still, a little in-the-box, but at least it’s better.

Bigger sister

Well well, isn’t she excitable?

Bigger sister indeed

O_O Put those away, you’re going to knock someone out with those…knockers.

Sorry, I couldn’t resist. The best part is, she has an ahoge, which means we pretty much know everything we need to know about her. Carefree, excitable, bumbling. Also she’s blonde, so gotta crank up the bimbo factor a bit. Huge amounts of really messy hair. Gotta love the lilac eyes. Bare midriff, bicycle shorts, boobs hanging out. Those bracelets are a little strange. Maybe they’re a weapon of some kind?

Normal Knees? Trope alert.

Ah hah, so Alex is actually called “Roman Torchwick”

White fang? Terrorist group name if I’ve ever heard one. And were those furries? Oh geez, is there gonna be some big, on-the-nose, racism element?

Glynda Goodwitch. Weird name, but I’ll take it. Is that like Good Witch of the North? Blonde has some Rapunzel in her. Then we have little red riding hood. Also, maybe I’m crazy but I was getting some Wizard of Oz(pin) vibes from the professor. Maybe it’s nothing and they’re just referencing fairy tales, or maybe it’s a big big part of the story. That would be really cool if they wove a bunch of fairy tales into it.

Time of Peace. Good to know.

Another cool airship.

Who’s this?

Why is there a dude on the Magical Girl College Airbus? Is he wearing a hoodie? Wait, can dudes be magical girls too? If chicks are called Huntresses, then I guess dudes are called Huntsmen? Hunters collectively? Also, is he airsick? That’s not terribly magical. I’m gonna guess that what we have here is the wannabe Hunter.

This also means that it’s not technically a magical girl anime anymore. Hurrah! We have the bumbling blonde bimbo and the bumbling Aryan coconut. (Anyone seen Attack on Titan Abridged?)

Review

This is is in a strange place. It shows a lot of promise, but the amateur voice acting and amateur visuals kinda hold it back. I’m going to stick with it though and see if it unfolds into something great. It’s a little too early to say much else.

Wrap-up

Well there you have it then. My inaugural post on my daily reaction diary or whatever the hell you want to call it. If you have any feedback on how I can make this better and less “wall of texty” I’d love to hear it. I’m not very good at reddit yet so I just did what I could. If you have any pointers please point them out.

Also, no spoilers. I made a lot of predictions here and most of them are probably wrong. Feel free to discuss the episode but please try not to ruin it for me. If it happens, it happens, that is the risk, but it would be nice to avoid it.

Further, if you think this is a terrible idea and I should leave and never come back just let me know that, too.

I thought it might be fun for you veterans to watch a RWBY newbie’s reactions as they happen. Relive those moments vicariously, ya know?

Lastly, does anyone have any ideas for a title for these things? I’m terrible at titles.